State PAL Publications

Advancing Paid Family and Medical Leave in 2026: Action in the States

New release! This State Policy at a Glance describes the status of paid family and medical leave legislation across the states. It highlights the disproportionate barriers to accessing leave faced by women of color, recent advances in Virginia, and State PAL's role in tracking further action in the states.

Status of Women: Michigan Snapshot

This state snapshot provides insights into the status of women in Michigan using the data and policy tracking from State PAL.

Status of Women: Colorado Snapshot

This state snapshot provides insights into the status of women in Colorado using the data and policy tracking from State PAL.

Native American Women Face the Highest Gender Wage Gap, Earning Barely Half of What White Men Make

This fact sheet notes the substantial and persistent pay gap between Native American women and White men across states. Highlighting that many Native American women’s earnings fell in 2023 from the previous year.

Latinas Paid Just 54 Cents on the Dollar in 2024, and Pay Equity Is More than 150 Years Away

This fact sheet analyzes the wide earnings gap, exacerbated by systemic inequities, between Latina women and White men nationally and state-by-state.

Investing in Economic Opportunity for Women in North Carolina

This is the latest report in IWPR’s longstanding Status of Women series. Investing in Economic Opportunity for Women in North Carolina is the first Status of Women report to draw from the state-level data, policy recommendations and state legislative tracking featured on State PAL.

Across Degrees, Titles, and States, Black Women Earn Just 64 Cents on the Dollar

This fact sheet shows that Black women face a substantial gap in earnings compared to White men nationally and by state, persistent across all education levels and even in leadership positions.

Status of Women: Illinois Snapshot

This state snapshot provides insights into the status of women in Illinois using the June 2025 data and policy tracking from State PAL.

The Parenthood Pay Divide: Why Mothers Earn Less Than Fathers in the US

This fact sheet provides national and state-by-state median annual earnings data for mothers and fathers of children younger than 18 and highlights parental earnings gaps by race and ethnicity.

Breaking Barriers: Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Women and the Fight for Equal Pay

This fact sheet highlights the wage equity disparities faced by Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander women nationally and state-by-state.

DC Paid Leave: Access and Impact on Workers

This report summarizes findings from interviews with beneficiaries of DC Paid Family Leave. These conversations provided insights into how having access to paid leave benefits impacted participants’ financial, mental, and physical well-being, as well as their ability to perform their caregiving responsibilities and their feelings about their jobs.

Post-Roe, Employees Want—and Expect—Businesses to Help with Reproductive Health Access

This research brief presents research findings exposing how state-level abortion restrictions are influencing where people live and work and what they look for in employers.

Why Are States Trying to Bury the Truth About Preventable Deaths of Pregnant Women?

This blog discusses the recent trend in abortion ban states to push their maternal mortality review committees, outspoken members, and the critical data they review into the shadows.

Want to Help Women? Get Rid of the Tipped Minimum Wage

This fact sheet provides national and state-by-state estimates of the gender, racial, and ethnic composition of the server workforce, as well as estimates of median annual earnings and the proportion of servers who earned below the federal poverty level.

How Hawai’i’s Child Care Crisis Impacts Women’s Ability to Succeed in the Workforce

This blog describes how the high cost and undersupply of child care in Hawai'i hinders parents—and particularly mothers—from participating fully in the workforce.